Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Individual Thought Patterns: Women In New York's Extreme Metal Music Scene, Joan M. Jocson-Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme metal music (EMM) is both an umbrella term and a sub-category of heavy metal. Although women have a small but steady presence in heavy metal, this number shrinks when applied to the EMM scene. Using ethnographic research, participant-observation and interviews, this study surveys women in New York's EMM scene to address participation, gender performativity and feminist musicology.

The Effect Of Economic Integration And Political Centralization On Linguistic Diversity - And The New Function And Status Of The English Language In Europe, Demba K. Baldeh

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effect of economic integration (EI) and political unity on

linguistic diversity and the new function and status of the English language in

Europe. It shows the current sociolinguistic transformation and the growing use of

English both as strong effects and key indicators of the process.

E-Waste In Relation To Geopolitical Forces: A Case Study Of The United States - Mexico Border Region, Michael A. Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Analysis deconstructs the electronic waste industry and its interconnectedness to geopolitical forces and economic development in the border region between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. A symbiotic business relationship exists between informal e-waste collectors, non-profit collection sites, and for-profit recyclers. Fieldwork data is analyzed from a slow/structural violence perspective.

Challenging Filipino Colonial Mentality With Philippine Art, Francesca V. Mateo

Master's Theses

For 350 years, the Philippines was colonized by Spain and the United States. The Philippines became a sovereign nation in 1946 yet, fifty years later, colonial teachings continue to oppress Filipinos due to their colonial mentality (CM.) CM is an internalized oppression among Filipinos in which they experience an automatic preference for anything Western—European or U.S. American—and rejection of anything Filipino. Although Filipinos show signs of a CM, there are Filipinos who are challenging CM by engaging in Philippine art. Philippine art is defined as Filipino-made visual art, literature, music, and dance intended to promote Philippine culture. This …

The Last Gay Man On Earth -- Can The Mainstreaming Of A Culture Be Responsible For Its Demise?, Muri Assunção

Capstones

Social acceptance towards the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer community (LGBTQ) has seen incredible progress in the last few decades. Less than 50 years ago, an act of rebellion against a homophobic police raid at Stonewall, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, kicked off the gay liberation movement and the fight for LGBTQ rights. Today, the queer revolution has proved effective: same-sex unions in the U.S. are legally allowed, and gay parenting is socially accepted. But, at what cost? Are queer people conforming to a heteronormative way of life? Can such social advances be also responsible for the …

Wabanaki Access To Sweetgrass (Hierochloe Odorata) Within Coastal Maine's Diminishing Open Land Tradition, Amanda Marie Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nontimber forest products (NTFPs), refer to a class of resources (i.e. moss, fungi, mushrooms, plants, etc.) gathered in both rural and urban landscapes. NTFPs are utilized by a variety of cultures all over the world and are a critical part of medicinal, spiritual, dietary, and economic practices. In fact, some NTFP species are so critical to people that they are considered ‘cultural keystone species’ (Garibaldi and Turner 2004). This designation means that without access to the NTFP, cultural survival is at risk. This is the case in Maine where the Wabanaki, a confederacy of four tribes (Passamaqouddy, Penobscot, Mikmaq, and …

Fortaleza's Immigrant Song: Portrait-Narratives And An Identity Needs Analysis Of Recent Immigrants' Lived Experiences, Carl Weitz-Santiago

Capstone Collection

This inquiry sheds light on the personal stories and lived experiences of a group of recent immigrants currently living in Fortaleza, the sprawling capital of the Northeastern state of Ceará, Brazil. Utilizing a theoretical framework guided by “Epistemologies of the South,” ethnographic principles, and constructivist grounded theory, this capstones presents five first person portrait-narratives highlighting intimate details of project participants’ lives prior to immigrating, and uncovers four persistent and recurrent themes expressed by project participants: (1) language and communication, (2) professional opportunity, (3) personal growth, and (4) “saudade” and belongingness.

Through the lens of Johan Galtung’s Basic Needs Approach, …

Ambivalent Subjects In Neoliberal Times: Non-Governmental Organizations And Binational Same Sex Couples In The United States, Jara M. Carrington

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation is a critical examination of the increasingly intimate relationship between the neoliberal state, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and their constituents through the lens of NGO-produced advocacy for “binational same sex couples” in the United States. I analyze how neoliberal political and economic ideologies are reconfiguring the role of NGOs, entities traditionally understood as outside state power, as well as the aspirations of their constituencies, within the United States. In particular, I interrogate how NGOs are an increasingly important site in the (re)production of normative gay and lesbian subjects, and illustrate how LGBTQ-identified individuals negotiate these conditions as they seek …

Cause For Question: Risk And Postmodern Panic In The Vaccine Safety Debate, Marygrace Trifilio

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the thoughts and feelings of non-vaccinating parents in America and argues that contemporary vaccine refusal results from overwhelming information saturation in the Internet age. Non-vaccinating parents express distrust of competing scientific research and call for a return to a more natural, toxin-free lifestyle.

Configuring The Qualification Of Good Coffee An Ethnography On The Specialty Coffee Industry In Milwaukee, Yang Liu

Theses and Dissertations

I put qualification at the center of this research, because the intensive emphasis on coffee quality in the Third Wave Coffee Movement is the first thing that drew me to this research. When I talked with people in the specialty coffee industry in Milwaukee, they did not always admit they are part of the movement but they did highlight coffee quality as the core value of the specialty coffee market.

The concept of qualification comes from Michael Callon and his colleagues’ (2002) theoretical framework “the economy of qualities.” It refers to an economy in which tradable goods in the market …

"It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite": Information And Secrecy In The Chicago Diy Punk Music Scene, Kaitlin Beer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine how the DIY punk scene in Chicago has utilized secretive information dissemination practices to manage boundaries between itself and mainstream society. Research for this thesis started in 2013, following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s meeting in Chicago. This event caused a crisis within the Chicago DIY punk scene that primarily relied on residential spaces, from third story apartments to dirt-floored basements, as venues. The scene became vulnerable to closures by law enforcement, who were directed by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to crackdown on activities taking place at potential locations for radical activity prior to the NATO …

A Dollar A Day: Child Sponsorship And The Marketization Of Human Development, Taylor Hallett

Capstone Collection

Child sponsorship as a method of international development offers child sponsors a personal connection to the process of alleviating poverty in the global South. As a form of human development, child sponsorship is constituted by neoliberal principles of marketization and social entrepreneurship. How does child sponsorship, in this context, require us to rethink the ethics of international development in light of ongoing debates about neoliberalism? In this research, I argue that child sponsorship reifies the binary of the “developed” and “undeveloped” worlds. Through undertaking a content analysis of three organizations (Compassion International, World Vision, and UNICEF) and applying post-structural critique …

Decolonizing African-American Museums: A Case Study On Two African-American Museums In The South, Anastacia Jonique Scott

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand how African-American museums’ exhibits help individuals gain their sense of racial identity through public memory. In an era where the United States is supposedly “post-racial” African-American museums are flourishing. As institutions serving an important role in preserving the collective memory of African-American people in the US, African-American museums evoke questions of representation within the larger US narrative that confirm the persistent saliency of race in society, and therefore continue to have a public function in maintaining and developing a racial African-American identity (Jackson 2012; Eichstedt and Small 2002; Wilson 2012; Golding 2009).

My research is …

Gastrointestinal Health As A Stimulus For Native American Attraction To Medicinal Asteraceae And Further Implications For Human Evolution, Christopher David Stiegler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Asteraceae, or the daisy family, is the largest family of flowering plants in the world, and its ethnobotanical, medical, and economic value is readily apparent cross-culturally. The aim of this thesis is to examine why constituent genera of the Aster family have remained such an integral part of human medicinal plant knowledge, and thereby to reveal any potential physiological, biological, or evolutionary mechanisms underlining human patterns of use regarding the Asteraceae. The present study focuses specifically on Native American plant knowledge made available by the expansive database in the works Daniel Moerman (Moerman 2003). Frequencies of plant use and …

Bad Language: A Study Of Structural Violence Through Language Policies In Australia, Dylan M. Howes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

By situating the heart of Aboriginal culture in the ability to understand and speak Aboriginal languages, I intend to prove that language education policies have caused damage within Aboriginal communities. In order to find and record the damage done by these policies I will use Johan Galtung’s theory of structural violence, which states that large social structures create indirect sources of violence by withholding resources and power from certain groups. Specifically, I will start by providing a brief history of Aboriginal culture and their languages. Then I will analyze language policies, policy analysis, and my own experiences in order to …

Cultural Diversity In Artificial Societies: Case Studies Of The Maya Peoples, Roberto Ulloa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The existence of cultural diversity in a connected world is paradoxical given that all individuals constantly interact and share information, and that individuals are all part of one giant network of connections. In the long term, it seems logical to assume that everybody should hold the same cultural information and, therefore, the same culture. Yet cultural diversity is still manifest around the globe. Cultural diversity as a phenomenon becomes even more puzzling when we take into account how it survives catastrophic events which regularly befall societies, such as invasions, natural disasters, and civil wars. In this thesis, agent-based computer simulations …

Reification, Resistance, And Transformation? The Impact Of Migration And Demographics On Linguistic, Racial, And Ethnic Identity And Equity In Educational Systems: An Applied Approach, Rebecca Ann Campbell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using an applied anthropological approach focused on language, this study investigates the relationship between linguistic, racial, and ethnic identities and school resource access in the context of migration. This project examines how these identities are established, experienced, reified, and resisted by various school actors. Exposing power at its roots through a multi-level analysis, this research informs on how people negotiate socialization into particular identities, propelling them toward positions in school and society of varying opportunity.

Focused on two elementary schools in a central Florida county that has been and is undergoing demographic changes, this work offers applications for educational institutions …

The Other Earthquake: Janil Lwijis, Student Social Movements, And The Politics Of Memory In Haiti, Laura A. Leisinger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Among increased calls for "new narratives" of Haiti, this thesis seeks to honor Haitian traditions of intellectualism and resistance, centering on the life and legacy of martyred professor Janil Lwijis in post-earthquake student social movements. Based on oral histories with student activists at the State University of Haiti (UEH), this work explores student protest in Haiti through the voices, often at odds, of those en lutte; it explores how Janil is invoked and remembered, and argues that oral history can contribute to activist research and pose a challenge to dominant narratives. A legacy that is contested, differential claims to Janil's …

Access To Health Services And Health Seeking Behavior Among Former Child Soldiers In Manizales, Colombia, Adriana Marcella Dail

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare (ICBF), the Colombian government aims to provide comprehensive reintegration for children demobilized from the country’s various armed groups. The reestablishment of rights, including the right to health (guaranteed by the Colombian constitution), is a key factor in successful reintegration. This thesis explores the topic of access to health care and health seeking behavior among former child soldiers in Manizales, Colombia who are over the age of 18 and were previously in the Hogar Tutor program (foster care-based youth reintegration) in Manizales. This thesis utilizes semi-structured interviews (n=9) and body mapping (n=9) with former …

Baiting Sustainability: Collaborative Coastal Management, Heritage Tourism, And Alternative Fisheries In Placencia, Belize, Eric Koenig

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Local coastal fishers in Belize are adapting novel strategies to manage, exploit, and market marine and coastal resources in an effort to promote fishing livelihoods and coastal environmental sustainability. These resilience strategies respond to diminished fishing stocks, fisheries and environmental policies and regulations, climate change, shifting seafood markets, and expanding tourism development. With growing foreign investment and nationally-directed infrastructure improvement projects on the Placencia Peninsula in recent years, tourism development is shifting toward mass tourism, and local residents are seeking avenues to sustain their livelihoods. In Placencia, the need for effective monitoring and management of Marine Protected Areas, fisheries, and …

There Is More Than One Way To Do Something Right: Applying Community-Based Approaches To An Archaeology Of Banks Island, Nwt, Laura Elena Kelvin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores how historical knowledge is produced and maintained within the Inuvialuit (Western Arctic Inuit) community of Sachs Harbour, NWT, to determine how archaeological research can best complement and respect Inuvialuit understandings and ways of knowing the past.

When archaeologists apply Indigenous knowledges to their research they often have limited understandings of how these knowledges work, and may apply them inadequately or inappropriately. I employ an archaeological ethnographic approach to help Ikaahukmiut (people with ties to Banks Island, NWT) articulate to archaeologists how they construct their knowledge of Banks Island’s past. Inuvialuit understandings of the past are experiential and …

Declining City, Born-Again Citadel: Faith-Based Organizations And The Reconstitution Of Inequality In Postindustrial America, Michael J. Boyle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the context of the hegemonic neoliberalism of recent decades, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have flourished as mechanisms for addressing poverty and other varieties of social need. For all of the contributions of contemporary anthropological research to the study of FBOs, however, most analyses have stressed the potency of FBOs and elided the agency of recipients. The present dissertation aims, through a multisited study of Evangelical FBOs in the postindustrial American city of Plainfield, to focus on the latter theme. Owing to the traditional behaviorism of American culture and also its Evangelical reproduction in FBO settings, the pursuit of charity thrusts …

Left Of Maidan: Self-Organization And The Ukrainian State On The Edge Of Europe, Emily S. Channell-Justice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the intersection of processes of Europeanization and decommunization in Ukraine during a time of war and upheaval. Through the lens of leftist and feminist activists, it explores how political action was renegotiated during and after the mass mobilizations of 2013-2014, known as Euromaidan or Maidan. I use the concept of “self-organization” to consider ways these activists have engaged with a dominant national ideology, which draws from specific political ideas about Europe and communism. I trace how self-organization has roots within socialist-era political forms, how it was enacted during the Maidan mobilizations, and its path since the end …

Performing El Rap El ʿArabi 2005-2015: Feeling Politics Amid Neoliberal Incursions In Ramallah, Amman, And Beirut, Rayya S. El Zein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is about politics in Arabic rap. Specifically, it is about affective dynamics and material negotiations during rap concerts in three cities in the Levant. I analyze Arab hip hop culture in the context of three different but related histories of cosmopolitan, middle class growth, and gentrification. Using an ethnomusicological framework rooted in participant observation and performance theory, I compare concert conditions, audience behavior, and accessibility of music production in Ramallah, Amman, and Beirut.

In Chapter One, I elaborate the discursive and theoretical frameworks that have pinned the political valences of Arab youth, Arab artists, and Arab rappers in …

Post-Apartheid Citizenship And The Politics Of Evictions In Inner City Johannesburg, Anthony Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, this ethnographic study examines the phenomenon of eviction within the context of the post-apartheid constitutional right to housing and legal protections against evictions. Rather than view evictions as a singular event, evictions are treated as a lived experience intrinsically linked to the historical, political, and economic life of inner city Johannesburg and more broadly South Africa. I address how South Africa’s constitution creates both a platform for housing advocates to contest evictions and also allows property owners to evict tenants. To analyze evictions, I collected data through participant observation, media sources, archives, interviews, and legal …

The Antipolitics Of Food In Middle-Class America, Neri De Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the food and parenting practices of a diverse group of middle-class families in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia. It starts from the basic premise that the economic pressures on the American middle classes find expression in family life around the socially reproductive work of choosing food and parenting.

The current economic climate marked with extreme and rising income inequality, low growth, high unemployment and stagnating wages has complicated the reproduction process for all parents in this study, regardless of income. Scholars have described how this concern for the future of the next …

Mandated Anger Management From The Perspective Of Violent Offenders, Cory M. Feldman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Anger management is a mandated treatment for violent offenders (VOs) in Harlem, New York returning from prison under parole supervision. This dissertation asks VOs to describe their experiences with parole-mandated anger management (AM). The objectives of this research are to help illuminate the reasons why anger management is mandated for VOs and why, for some, mandated AM may be potentially harmful to their reintegration. To date, there have not been any studies exploring the role of AM for people on parole charged with violent offenses; the extant literature on AM provides neither formal evaluations nor long-term follow-up to indicate what …

Extracting Indigeneity: Oil, Environment And Self-Determination In The Falkland Islands (Malvinas), James J. A. Blair

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This ethnographic and historical project examines how the settlers of the Falkland Islands (In Spanish, Malvinas) are constructing themselves as “natives” through new forms of governance over energy resources. Three decades after a violent war that cemented the archipelago’s British status, offshore oil discoveries led Argentina to renew its sovereignty claim. In response, the Falkland Islanders held a 2013 referendum on self-determination, in which 99.8% voted to remain British, with just three dissenters out of 1,517 valid votes. Most of the Islanders are white settlers, making their invocation of self-determination different from that of former colonial subjects with aboriginal rights. …

Empty Metal Jacket: The Biopolitical Economy Of War And Medicine, Sandra Lee Trappen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Empty Metal Jacket: The Biopolitical Economy of War and Medicine undertakes study of how global conflict and violence shape the entire range of social production, from commodities and culture to social goods and social theory. The research presented in this work draws from cutting-edge theories in body and science studies, in addition to theories of affect and biopolitics to address how war became a problem solving paradigm in medicine. Combat casualties are shown to serve as a material nexus for medical knowledge production. Although the focus here is on medicine and medical innovation in particular, these developments are connected to …

Losing Values: Illiquidity, Personhood, And The Return Of Authoritarianism In Skopje, Macedonia, Fabio Mattioli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On May 17, 2015, over 50,000 people took to the streets of Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, protesting against Prime Minister Gruevski and his party, the conservative neoliberal Internal Revolutionary Organization of Macedonia (VMRO). After nine years of authoritarian government, it was the first significant demonstration in which the population demanded accountability for Gruevski's despotic system of rule. This dissertation is the story of how Gruevski's system of power was built and why it lasted for so long. I argue that a series of failing financial processes, which included the use of illiquidity, created the material and …